Irene Smothers and Joyce Carter are supporting antagonists in the 2023 series Poker Face, acting as the main antagonists of the episode "Time of the Monkey". They residents of the Mossy Oaks Retirement Home who are secretly cold-blooded murderers.
Irene was portrayed by Judith Light and Joyce was portrayed by S. Epatha Merkerson.
Personality[]
Irene and Joyce are ruthless, violent, and murderous individuals who have no qualms about killing innocent people and will kill anyone who stands in the way of achieving their goals. Despite their violent tendencies, the pair genuinely care for one another, having remained close for all of the decades that they have known each other for.
Biography[]
Past[]
In their youth, Irene and Joyce were members of a political terrorist group led by a man named Gabriel, who both women loved and willingly followed. With the others, Irene and Joyce planned to bomb a prep school full of high school students, viewing this horrible act as sending a message to the future generation of war criminals, by killing the children of the elite. Gabriel ended up selling the group out and they were stopped by the police. Irene was shot by the police during the chaos, causing her legs to become paralyzed. Joyce rushed to help her and the two women were sent to prison for thirty years.
Present Day[]
As old women, Irene and Joyce are residents of Mossy Oaks Retirement home, having remained close friends through all of their years in prison. When Gabriel comes to the senior home, the pair immediately plot to kill him. Irene and Joyce befriend Charlie Cale, who they get along with and Charlie spends time with them. They pretend that they were innocent members of a cult that were unfairly sent to prison. Upon coming to the senior home, Gabriel talks with Irene and Joyce apologizing for selling them out all those decades ago, feeling genuinely remorseful. Irene and Joyce pretend to forgive him, while planning to murder him.
They formulate their murder plan, which involved Irene filling up a syringe with sodium nitrate and Joyce wheeling Irene to the bathroom and locking the door, allowing Irene to clime out the window and up the side of the building to Gabriel's room, where she murders him in his bed by injecting him in the neck with the sodium nitrate. To cover up their crimes, Irene swaps Gabriel's wrist monitor for her own. They go on a trip to the zoo with the other seniors and go off privately. Joyce puts on Gabriel's wrist monitor and and Irene tasers her so that it reads on Gabriel's monitor that he had a heart attack. Betty, one of the other resident seniors sees this and thinks that they are performing a sexual act.
Charlie investigates Gabriel's murder and learns from Betty about what she saw them doing. To stop Betty from revealing their actions, Irene and Joyce plant a bomb in Betty's air fryer, which explodes and kills her. Charlie learned from FBI agent, Luca, that Irene and Joyce were actually part of a domestic terrorist group, leading Charlie to discover the truth and learn that they were the ones who murdered Gabriel and Betty. Charlie confronts them in their house about what they did. This leads to the pair vicious attacking her and trying to kill her. After a hard fight, Irene and Joyce subdue Charlie and are about to kill her, but are caught and arrested by the FBI. As they are driven away by the police, Charlie gets on a golf car, only to realize that they planted a bomb in it and jumps off just in time as it explodes.